fuuma's fire crusader for t5 farming

After using a holy build most of the time since launch and getting tired of the boring hammers I wanted to try out a fire build to see how it works, hammers weren't really performing like I wanted them to in t3 and above partly because they only hit the same target once and partly because of the very weak single target damage. After I found Maximus I decided to try my hand at a fire crusader cause the weapon made up for the lack of single target damage that I had with the hammer build. I can currently farm t5 comfortably and also do some t6 althought it is slow and uneffective.

AbilitiesGenerator: Punish
Im using Punish with the Roar rune for the fire synergy. This gives me some more block and does quite a bit of damage on everything around my when im in the middle of huge packs. You can also use Slash if you prefer that over the extra block.

Main spender: Sweep
This is going to be your main wrath spender and it does high fire damage infront of you, this skill will also get a damage increase with the upcoming patch and should be even more viable then. If you still enjoy the hammers you can switch this out for the fire hammers.

Secondary spender: Falling Sword
Here the only choice for a fire crusader is the Superheated rune, this does high damage in a pretty big area and works really well in combination with the other skills but more on that later.

Utility 1: Judgement
Here i'm using the Resolved rune this helps lock packs in place and gives you some extra damage on the initial attacks. This also works great in group play where you will melt packs extremly quickly with this combo.

Utility 2: Laws of Valor
This is a great damage buff for you or the group if you're playing with friends. I go with the critical rune for the higher crits that work great in combination with Judgement. This can be changed out for a more defensive Law of you are in need of more toughness on t4 or higher difficulties. I usually farm in t3 and t4 so I usually stick with Valor.

Extra dmg/Survivability: Akarat's Champion
I go for Akarat's Champion here since I like to use it as a safety measure when I meet packs with nasty affixes that are hurting me badly. At the moment im using the fire starter rune but I usually use Prophet for the extra toughness since damage isn't really a problem for me.

PassivesWrathful
This is obviously for the healing, this is very important to stay alive and it heals pretty well with the wrath cost of sweep.

Heavenly Strength
Again obviously for the 2handers.

Long Arm of the Law
This is a great passive for group play as it gives a few extra second of damage to burn down rift bosses quicker. In higher torments and solo play this can be switched out for a more defensive passive like Divine Fortress if you have a shield with high block % or Hold Your Ground if you want the extra block chance.

Finery
This can also be swapped out for a more defensive passive if necesarry but I find this one to be a good mix of defense and offense for this build.

Gameplay
What you want to do with this build is initiate packs with Judgement to lock them in place, then pop Laws of Valor and use Falling Sword. This should guarantee a crit and massive initial damage to the pack. I have critted for 50 mill+ on this skill and it is great for solo and group play. In groups the Judgement + Laws of Valor will make everyone love you for their big numbers and insane burst it gives you. The 4man group I usually run with kills t4 rift bosses in the 10 seconds Laws of Valor last most of the time. When you land from Falling sword just start using Sweep if the demon from Maximus hasn't spawned. If he spawns you should focus on positioning the firechain and then sweeping after getting them in the firechain.

Gear
I currently have most of the gear I want for the fire build but none of my items are perfect and can be improved, I would like to get a good pair of Aeshara gloves so I can replace Andariels and my boots for Akkhan. In the long term I will probably replace all of the Aeshara pieces with Akkhan, but the bonus is to good to drop at the moment.

Final Statement
This is a really fun build to play with and it works very well in groups. If you're tired of using the boring holy or lightning hammers and have some fire gear laying around try it out and see how you like it. I enjoy this build immensly and hopefully someone else out there already does or will do in the future. The build got slightly buffed in the last patch and still works really well. Hopefully they will fix the damage over time effect on sweep in the future to improve this build even more. Feel free to comment with any constructive criticism or suggestions to improve the build. Have fun with the game and enjoy the hunt for the legendaries

I can easily run T1 rifts, and am a bit slower on T2 right now. Do you think with my current gear (if I re-roll bracers to fire damage) that this build would work? I want to get an Andy's Visage and a new neck (for fire damage) if RNG will let me.

I can easily run T1 rifts, and am a bit slower on T2 right now. Do you think with my current gear (if I re-roll bracers to fire damage) that this build would work? I want to get an Andy's Visage and a new neck (for fire damage) if RNG will let me.

I'm not completely sure if you will be able to do T3 yet but you should be able to do atleast what you are doing now and get some better synergy with your Maximus. You should also look into replacing your boots with a pair that has Sweep damage aswell if you're going to try this build out. I don't see any reason for you currently to stick with lightning damage since you still have more fire damage.and it should mean an overall dps increase for you.

Sure, the first thing you should look into is crafting the aughild shoulders and bracers. Those are great items with amazing set bonuses, especially if you have the Royal ring of Grandeur from act 1 bounty bags. Also rerolling attack speed on your neck to critical hit damage, but that might be what you are trying to do atm. I also like using the String of Ears belt for some extra survivability. Since you only get 3.7 magic find from the gem in your helm I would rather put something else in there like an amethyst or if you have an andariel's lying around I would switch to that. Rerolling life on hit to crit or crit dmg on your stone of jordan is also something to look into. Other than that it's just waiting for better legendaries to drop and use the forgotten souls to craft and reroll the gear you are currently using.

No offense to your build, but I'm sick of the Judgement>LoV staples in so many guides. I find it uninspired and bland. Also just a massive crutch. I'd rather drop both the skills for another kind of utility or more flavor of the build than just another two buttons of buffs. Personal pref and not really anything wrong with using those two moves, just /sigh at yet another guide where you're more of a buff bot than a damage contributor.

No offense to your build, but I'm sick of the Judgement>LoV staples in so many guides. I find it uninspired and bland. Also just a massive crutch. I'd rather drop both the skills for another kind of utility or more flavor of the build than just another two buttons of buffs. Personal pref and not really anything wrong with using those two moves, just /sigh at yet another guide where you're more of a buff bot than a damage contributor.

/self respect.

In the current state of the crusader you will probably never be anything other than a buff bot on t5/t6 group play, the aoe is decent but the single target damage for the crusader is horrible. When running a fire crusader your choices are pretty limited so there isn't that much to choose from, there is nothing in the way of running something like shield glare instead of judgement. The main idea is to lock them in place to make sure you will hit with falling sword. Im currently not using judgement myself but dropping the Law to get more damage for yourself makes the group weaker overall and is pretty much mandatory when playing with friends. When grouping I usually run shield glare and provoke in addition to the law on higher torments because that benefits the group more than me doing a little more dps. My friends wd pets will deal so much more damage with the buffs compared to the crusader with a couple of other skills anyway so its pointless for me to be selfish and care more about my own numbers. Buffing each other to clear rifts faster is what group play is all about in my eyes.

I don't have a problem with Laws, and problem is probably to strong a word, but I think LoV>Critical is way over used. I'd like to see the other two laws used, like Justice>immovable object or perhaps find a Law o Hope to fit into a build. Judge>FS is a good combo, i've enjoy that one myself. I really didn't mean it as a criticism of your build, more of a criticism of our skill choices that pigeon hole us into these two moves so solidly.

I wrote the Fist of Retribution guide that's on these forums. You should try that build for a bit and see what you think of our single target. I've kill t3 Butcher in 24s. No its not super high end, but that's still like 300m damage in under 30s which prob constitutes a decent single target damage lol :).

I don't have a problem with Laws, and problem is probably to strong a word, but I think LoV>Critical is way over used. I'd like to see the other two laws used, like Justice>immovable object or perhaps find a Law o Hope to fit into a build. Judge>FS is a good combo, i've enjoy that one myself. I really didn't mean it as a criticism of your build, more of a criticism of our skill choices that pigeon hole us into these two moves so solidly.

I wrote the Fist of Retribution guide that's on these forums. You should try that build for a bit and see what you think of our single target. I've kill t3 Butcher in 24s. No its not super high end, but that's still like 300m damage in under 30s which prob constitutes a decent single target damage lol :).

Still like your build. I can't wait for sweeps fire dot to get fixed.

I have another crusader with a fairly similar build to the one you have a guide on, but I still think it's to slow on single target. My low geared wd can kill a t3 rift boss in under 15 seconds, so I would like to get some more single target options atleast. At the moment im using blessed shield combustion as I think it gives a nice middle ground, not to bad on single target and pretty good on packs. Seems like I just have to wait for 2 more set pieces to get the 6 set bonus, that will take me over the top for easier t6 farming except for the rift boss ofc.

Looking forward to sweep getting fixed aswell, compared to other classes the crusader is so weak at the moment that pretty much all my other characters can do similar things with lower gear. Hopefully there will be some more changes soon(next maintenance would be awesome). I would try to do something with smite but i'm missing the flail so i'll have to wait for that.

I like using Justice > Immovable object when im farming t6 with my friends, but in t5 and below we have no problems surviving at all so Critical is the superior choice for damage output.

Good morning please take a look at my build and give me feedback/suggestions to improve. I can currently do T5, but I want to be more efficient. Also I have a nice Maximus that I would like to use instead of the 1h gryfalcon's foote. Problem is I can't seem to fit the 2h with heavenly strength into the build properly. I also have a nicely rolled sword of prophecy, should I be using that instead? I have been lucky with fire gear, not so lucky with holy. Also I only have 2 good shields, either jenkangboard, with the extra blessed shield tragets, or the one that cuts heaven's fury cool down by 47%.

I also really enjoy the Fire Crusader build. A skill I personally find extremely useful for this is Shield Glare - Divine Verdict. Coupled with Arakat's Champion - Rally it effectively keeps elite packs constantly blind and taking 20% damage. It obviously works better with The Final Witness shield, but is still very viable as a cone based skill.

I didn't personally like Finery, as it only increased my DPS by like 30k (60ish after 107%+ fire).

The biggest issue with this build I had was mobility. I personally prefer a similar build varient that uses Laws of Valor - Answered Prayer (constantly buffs entire groups with 15% runspeed) and Steed Charge - Nightmare to help provide much needed mobility.

I agree that for pure DPS though Laws of Valor - Critical rune is much better, its a tradeoff between stronger mob burn-downs and run-speed throughout the zones. The reason I like Answered Prayer is even on T5 I don't find DPS to be much of an issue, but slow running makes me groan.

Something not really mentioned often regarding Punish - Roar rune: when coupled with the passive Renewal it effectively makes you immune to Fire Chains/Malthaels WW attack/any sort of constant WW type damage as it procs the heal at an insanely quick rate.

I tried Falling Sword Superheated for awhile and the paper damage seemed good but it did not appear to be doing any damage which confused me so I like using Steed in groups to keep up or Consecration - Shattered Ground to add DPS and healing in T5/T6.

this is the one i used with maximus. With a bit of cooldown shield glare becomes viable
@vycus nothing else in the game gives 100% crit and 8-16% ias the other laws are ineffective as most of the other classes in the game have some of the same effects. barb healing shout etc